Woman commits suicide after fight over Line password

A woman reportedly committed suicide in New Taipei City early on Sunday because her boyfriend would not tell her the password to his account on popular social messaging app Line.

Chen Wei-chun (陳韋君), 37, died after jumping off the balcony of her boyfriend’s 10th-floor apartment in Sinjhuang District (新莊).

The couple had reportedly been together for more than nine months, and Chen had moved in with her boyfriend, also surnamed Chen (陳), in September last year.

Police quoted the boyfriend as saying that Chen Wei-chun had asked to see who he was texting on Line on Saturday night, but he refused on privacy grounds.

That reportedly made Chen Wei-chun suspicious that he was texting another girl and she angrily stormed into her room, the police said.

Police said the boyfriend said he did not know anything was wrong until the building’s security guards knocked on his door on Sunday morning to tell him that the woman’s body had been found.

According to the boyfriend, the couple had a “cooling off” policy for when they fought, in which they agreed to calm down before tackling the contentious issue again.

He told police that was why he had not tried to talk with Chen Wei-chun again after the fight, they said.

“She shut herself in her room, playing music loudly, while I sat in the living room watching TV. I only knocked once [on her door] to ask her to lower the volume, because I was afraid she might disturb the neighbors, but she did not answer,” police quoted the boyfriend as saying.

He told police that she went out to buy something at about 8pm on Saturday and locked herself in her room after she returned.

Chen Wei-chun had worked in a beauty parlor, but quit last month because of a disagreement with the salon’s owner and had not found another job, the police said.

She did not go out often after she quit her job and when she did often borrowed NT$2,000 to NT$3,000 from her boyfriend, they said.

Police said Chen Wei-chun died where she fell after suffering massive head trauma.